Word.ws English Dictionary

unbuttoned

/ʌnˈbʌtənd/

unbuttoned is the simple past and past participle of unbutton.

Adjective

unbuttoned (comparative more unbuttoned, superlative most unbuttoned)

  1. Having the buttons undone.
    • Once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, camping on the path with an armed escort of lank Zanzibaris, very hospitable and festive, not to say drunk.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 209
  2. In disarray.
  3. Informal, casual.

Meaning of unbutton

Verb

unbutton (third-person singular simple present unbuttons, present participle unbuttoning, simple past and past participle unbuttoned)

  1. (ambitransitive) To open (something) by undoing its buttons.
    • Being now too high wound up to bear a delay, he unbutton'd, and drawing out the engine of love-assaults, drove it currently, as at a ready-made breach1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC
  2. (ergative, intransitive) To come open by having its buttons unfastened.
    • He was so muscled and firm, and the canvas shirt under his jacket unbuttoned easily.2010, Janet Chapman, Tempt Me If You Can, page 70

Antonyms of unbuttoned

Forms of unbuttoned

comparativemore unbuttoned
superlativemost unbuttoned

Origin of unbuttoned

From un- + buttoned. In some instances possibly from unbutton.

Questions about unbuttoned

What does unbuttoned mean?
Unbuttoned means having the buttons undone.
What is unbuttoned the simple past and past participle of?
Unbuttoned is the simple past and past participle of unbutton.
What part of speech is unbuttoned?
Unbuttoned is an adjective.
How do you pronounce unbuttoned?
Unbuttoned is pronounced /ʌnˈbʌtənd/.

Words near unbuttoned in the dictionary

  1. unbutchered
  2. unbutcherlike
  3. unbuttered
  4. unbutton
  5. unbuttonable
  6. unbuttoned
  7. unbuttoning
  8. unbuttonings
  9. unbuttons
  10. unbuttressed
  11. unbuxom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unbuttoned (page history and authors); unbutton (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “unbuttoned.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unbuttoned. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.